If you work in broadcast then you will be very familiar to having to keep an eye on video levels. Nobody loves a rejected master. Eyejeight has just announced the availability of a plugin legaliser to make sure your whites aren't too white.

If the headline sounds a bit family, it is, we first announced that Eyeheight were going to release a suite of compliance applications back at IBC 2013. They took a bit of tracking down at the RAI, located on the end of one of the bridges. They got quite exited when we showed them how to use an adjustment layer for a 'one hit' plugin legaliser application.

This year they are much more upfront by announcing the product before IBC kicks off at the end of the week. (Should you want to go checkout the plugin they are in Hall 8 stand B97)

BroadcastSafeFCPX is a £395 plugin that works in both Final Cut Pro X and (should you want it) in Motion too.

We have been exporting quite a few broadcast masters out over the summer and we have to say that the built-in broadcast safe isn't our favourite. Not only does it drop the overall level without the option of a specular highlight 'haircut,' it also changes the hue of bright colours. We have seen bright yellows turn to greens.

So when the Eyeheight press release crossed our desk we were quite excited to learn more, especially when we read their statement on Apple and FCPX!

'File conformance is something many editors leave their equipment working on while the move to other tasks. Conforming a 30 minute programme on a relatively low-specification computer can take as long as two hours which can be frustrating if a client is pressing for early delivery. Apple has made Final Cut Pro X a very popular editing package by making full use of the hardware-accelerated graphics processing in the latest Mac Pro. The BroadcastSafeFCPX plug-in Eyeheight is introducing at IBC2014 in Amsterdam allows legalisation to performed in real time or even faster. Apple is currently ahead of it competitors in this respect which gives Final Cut Pro X a significant edge. Eyeheight hopes to extend this advantage to other editing packages as the potential of hardware-accelerated graphics is more widely implemented.

Eyeheight's BroadcastSafe is a plug-in video legaliser which enables editors to verify and conform content prior to submission to any file-based quality control system. It can be used to perform composite, RGB, RGB-plus-Y and simultaneous composite-plus-RGB legalising, all with operator-adjustable soft clipping at high and low thresholds. Precise chroma-space conversion and accurate limiting ensure compliance while keeping the full gamut available for creative use.

Editors can select from an extensive range of presets, or work in custom mode which gives full access to 15 configurable parameters. Facility administrators can assign which built-in presets are available to users, create new presets or disable the custom option to ensure that only approved configurations are implemented.'

There are three different types of licence modes:

HL licencing - (£395) BroadcastSafeFCX is locked to a USB hardware licence key. This mode is ideal for users who use a MacBook for field work and a Mac Pro for non-field editing.

SL licencing - BroadcastSafeFCX is locked to a particular computer with a software key file. This involves no external hardware but means that the license is not transferrable from computer to computer.

Will the price point be attractive to FCPX editors?, the plugin will produce a master that will pass broadcaster video tests and in comparison the cost of resubmitting a file won't be a cheap operation.. Loudness and Harding tests are something that we will look at soon.